Roadside Crosses: A Kathryn Dance Novel (Kathryn Dance Novels) [Hardcover]

Jeffery Deaver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2009 | Series: Kathryn Dance Novels

INCLUDES A BONUS MP3 CD OF JEFFERY DEAVER'S THE BLUE NOWHERE!

The latest Kathryn Dance thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sleeping Doll!

The Monterey Peninsula is rocked when a killer begins to leave roadside crosses beside local highways -- not in memoriam, but as announcements of his intention to kill. And to kill in particularly horrific and efficient ways: using the personal details about the victims that they've carelessly posted in blogs and on social networking websites.

The case lands on the desk of Kathryn Dance, the California Bureau of Investigations foremost body language expert. She and Deputy Michael O'Neil follow the leads to Travis Brigham, a troubled teenager whose role in a fatal car accident has inspired vicious attacks against him on a popular blog, The Chilton Report. As the investigation progresses, Travis vanishes. Using techniques he learned as a brilliant participant in multiplayer online role-playing games, he easily eludes his pursuers and continues to track his victims. Among the obstacles Kathryn must hurdle are politicians from Sacramento, paranoid parents and the blogger himself, James Chilton, whose belief in the importance of blogging and the new media threatens to derail the case and potentially Dance's career. It is this threat that causes Dance to take desperate and risky measures...

In signature Jeffery Deaver style, Roadside Crosses is filled with dozens of plot twists, cliff-hangers and heartrending personal subplots. It is also a searing look at the accountability of blogging and life in the online world. Roadside Crosses is the third in Deaver's bestselling High-Tech Thriller Trilogy, along with The Blue Nowhere and The Broken Window.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In bestseller Deaver's surprise-filled third Kathryn Dance novel (after The Sleeping Doll), Dance, an agent with the California Bureau of Investigation, gets an eye-opening education in some of the hottest areas of the cyberworld. After an auto accident kills two teens, vicious smears of Travis Brigham, the teen driver deemed responsible but not charged in the accident, appear on the Chilton Report, a popular blog. After one of the accusing bloggers barely survives an assault, Brigham becomes a person of interest. Brigham disappears, and attacks, each preceded by a crude roadside cross, spread to other Chilton bloggers. Meanwhile, Dance also looks into a mercy killing at Monterey Bay Hospital that takes an unexpected turn, and Robert Harper, a special prosecutor from the attorney general's office in Sacramento, begins an investigation that will affect her. Deaver's expert and devious plotting makes it a challenge to stay only a couple of steps behind him. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Deaver is bound to slip up sometime. But not this time. This novel, which follows on the heels of Sleeping Doll (2007), again stars California Bureau of Investigation agent Kathryn Dance and, like its predecessor, is tightly constructed with a suspenseful story and plenty of plot twists. Deaver, perhaps more than any other crime writer, is able to fool even the most experienced readers with his right-angle turns, and this story of a serial killer who uses social networks to find his prey is full of them. Deaver’s investigators are very good at their jobs, and in order to fool them (and us), he must be exceedingly clever, as well as just a little bit deceitful (having characters say things that turn out not to be true, for example, even though they believed the things when they said them). So far Deaver has avoided accidentally telegraphing a plot twist in advance, but someday, surely, he’ll out-clever himself. Or maybe he won’t. This is an excellent entry in what promises to be a series as popular as the author’s Lincoln Rhyme novels. --David Pitt

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1ST edition (June 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416549994
• ISBN-13: 978-1416549994
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #583,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeffery Deaver was born outside of Chicago in 1950. His father was an advertising copywriter and his mother was a homemaker. He has one younger sister who writes novels for teenagers ' Julie Reece Deaver.

Deaver wrote his first book ' which consisted of two entire chapters ' when he was eleven, and he's been writing ever since. An award-winning poet and journalist, he has also written and performed his own songs around the country. After receiving a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri, Deaver worked as a magazine writer, then, to gain the background needed to become a legal correspondent for The New York Times or Wall Street Journal, he enrolled at Fordham Law School. After graduation he decided to practice law for a time and worked for several years as an attorney for a large Wall Street firm. It was during his long commute to and from the office that he began writing the type of fiction he enjoyed reading: suspense novels. In 1990 he started to write full time.

The author of twenty-two novels, Deaver has been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, an Anthony award, a Gumshoe Award, and is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year. In 2001, he won the W.H. Smith Thumping Good Read Award for his Lincoln Rhyme novel The Empty Chair. In 2004, he was awarded the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Garden Of Beasts and the Short Story Dagger for "The Weekender." Translated into 35 languages, his novels have appeared on a number of bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the London Times and the Los Angeles Times. The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington as Lincoln Rhyme. A Maiden's Grave was made into an HBO film retitled Dead Silence, starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin.

Jeff has also released two collections of his short stories, called Twisted and More Twisted.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's another breathless, slam bang thriller from Deaver, June 11, 2009

By 

Jeri Nevermind "loves to read" (Idaho) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Roadside Crosses: A Kathryn Dance Novel (Kathryn Dance Novels) (Hardcover)

Deaver specializes in thrillers, and in "Roadside Crosses" he manages enough twists and turns to keep you compulsively turning the pages. Here's the quick summation: go out an buy this book!

Kathryn Dance, whom Deaver introduced a few novels ago, is a specialist in reading people. The momentary smile or constant blinking of a suspect--something those without her training would never notice--gives her real insight into whether a suspect is lying or not.

This time, she is up against an internet genius.

Someone, it seems, is putting up roadside crosses, not, as is usual, as a memorial to someone who died in an auto crash. But as a way to announce a coming death. But why? And who?

The computer genius Dance is pitted against is as clever as it gets. Don't expect you can guess where Deaver is leading you; he's a terrific writer, and this is one of his best books yet.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look into technology and teens, with a healthy dose of suspense added!, June 11, 2009

By 

Novel Bookworm "Kelly" (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Roadside Crosses: A Kathryn Dance Novel (Kathryn Dance Novels) (Hardcover)

Deaver does an excellent job in this second in the Kathryn Dance series. Even though the book references the incidents of the previous novel, the reader can follow along quite well. Dance's character is further fleshed out, allowing us to see a bit more of what "makes her tick". The book is an interesting foray into the world of blogging and especially into the world of cyber bullying. It was frighteningly true to life to see how rumors, innuendo and outright lies can travel the globe in the speed of a mouse click and the terrible ramifications for those targeted.

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Maybe a Deaver fan no more, June 22, 2009

By 

G. Allred - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Roadside Crosses: A Kathryn Dance Novel (Kathryn Dance Novels) (Hardcover)

I've been a fan of Jeffery Deaver since reading 'Praying for Sleep' and have since bought most of the books that followed, however, Roadside Crosses left me bored and uninterested. It seemed he was trying to convince the reader that he's a techie. Way too much teaching about the cyberworld and the whole book left me cold. Probably, Mr. Deaver is a bit burned out after having written such great books in the past, but he loses me as an avid fan. Before I'd buy another of his books, I will want some other readers input.